The invention relates to multi-occupant seating such as aircraft passenger seating wherein the occupants are separated by armrests. With the advent of newer wide body aircraft there has been some increase in the width of seats, especially in the first class cabin, from that used in older aircraft. Some of the extra width has gone into wider armrests separating the seats. The wide armrests have proven popular and present a somewhat luxurious appearance to coach class passengers who normally have quite narrow armrests separating them from adjacent passengers. Since seats are usually built to accommodate the larger framed passenger it is obvious that they are wider than necessary for the average passenger. It would seem desirable, therefore, to provide a seat and armrest combination wherein the armrest is ordinarily quite wide but which can be reduced in size to accommodate a large passenger. Such seating would have the esthetically pleasing features of wide armrests as well as the functional advantage that normal sized adjacent passengers could each use the armrest rather than have to compete for its use as is normal with narrow armrests.
Another feature of some aircraft seating which some passengers find annoying is what to do with the armrest between a pair of seats when one of the seats is empty and the occupant of the other seat wants to lie down and rest. Many armrests pivot into the seat back, but usually not quite far enough to avoid being uncomfortable to a person lying down. Although pillows are often available, there are usually not enough for everyone and they are usually too small to be a true substitute for a bed pillow. It would thus also be an advantage if the armrest could also serve as a pillow.